Swearing, Quite the Issue

A week ago our speech and debate meet ran 3 hours long. This meant that we would get home a little bit before one in the morning, and threw everyone into a foul mood.

As we walked through the darkness towards our bus I heard the complaints from fellow students, and I had a few of my own.  Many dropped the f-bomb a couple of times during their rants.

I could see where they were coming from. The speech coach in charge of the whole thing had added a wildcard event that messed with the whole event timing. None of the judges knew where their rooms were located, and as a result were running about 30 minutes late. In all honesty it was a massive kerfuffle.

I was disappointed. These are the most eloquent people in my school, some with a vocab greater than the GDP of a small country (Not hard with the recession going on around the world, but bare with me). It was sad that people needed to resort to swearing to show their frustration and displeasure.

Swearing is the crass way through a conversation, and also the easy one. Most English teachers force you to stop using overused words like nice or pretty because there is richer vocabulary to use.

I feel the same way about swearing.

While you can easily swear to get your point across, you can just as readily say that you are frustrated by  saying "That's not something I want to do again" or "That was infuriating".

You could change out the swear word with something different like "Storm it", "Bother", "not good."

You could even substitute profanity with something non sequitur like "flaming cabbage."

My point is that there are many different ways that change your vocabulary, forego swearing and maybe even lighten the mood. I believe that when we choose words that articulate our feelings without swearing, not only do we come across as more polished, but we also open the door to uplift those around us.  Brightening the mood, rather than "cursing" the darkness.

The Savior taught that it wasn't the things that go into us, that defile us, or define our character, but, "But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man..." (Matthew 15:18).  The words I speak are a reflection of me.